What happens to surplus money raised in presidential campaigns?
 

What happens to surplus money raised in presidential campaigns?

Specifically Barack Obama, now that he has more money than God.

Well, according to 26 U.S.C. Section 9038(b)(3):

"Amounts received by a candidate from the matching payment account may be retained for the liquidation of all obligations to pay qualified campaign expenses incurred for a period not exceeding 6 months after the end of the matching payment period. After all obligations have been liquidated, that portion of any unexpended balance remaining in the candidate’s accounts which bears the same ratio to the total unexpended balance as the total amount received from the matching payment account bears to the total of all deposits made into the candidate’s accounts shall be promptly repaid to the matching payment account."

(quoted directly from statute)

Now, Obama did not use matching funds...I think that his campaign would retain the funds for the next time he runs for office, and that if he didn't run for office, the money would go to the party. But, I can't find an exact cite for that, and I could very well be wrong (I'm not expert on campaign finance laws).

Innnnteresting.

Has Obama's campaign paid off Hillary and Biden's campaign debt's yet? If not, I'd guess some of it would be used for that. (But I think the campaign will still have a ton left over.)

It goes to buy off the legal challenges he's going to find himself in once ethics charges are leveled.

Course, that will be after the election.

What ethics charges? The made-up ones?

Aren't there always going to be ethics charges these days whether you deserve them or not?

Not entirely inaccurate. I think it can be shifted to "compliance funds" which are used to address lawsuits and challenges related to the election, FEC findings, etc. Fairly standard on national political campaigns I think.

There are rarely excess funds. For one thing, most candidates will lend money to their own campaign. Anybody who has lended money to a campaign must be reimbursed prior to any other funds being distributed.

This information is a few years old, but again, I doubt that any campaign has many left over funds.

Thanks for asking this... I too wondered what happened to the money.